On February 21, 1977, the body of 47-year-old Teresita Basa was found in her torched apartment on the 15th Floor of 2740 N. Pine Grove Ave in Chicago. She was a respiratory therapist at the now defunct Edgewater Hospital. Police had no suspects until another respiratory therapist named Remedios Chua started going into trances and channeling the voice of Teresita that ultimately named her killer, Allan Showery, a 32-year-old, orderly at the same hospital.
[caption id="attachment_639" align="alignleft" width="225"]![Teresita Basa's apartment building at 2740 N. Pine Grove Ave.]()
Teresita Basa's apartment building at 2740 N. Pine Grove Ave.[/caption]
Not only did Remedios “Remy”, name Showery but also what articles of jewelry the police would find in his possession and the names and phone numbers of relatives of Teresita who could identify the items.
I won’t go into the details since I published a story last year on the anniversary of Teresita’s Death.
This year I was curious as to what happened to both of them following the crime that made national news in the late 1970s.
[caption id="attachment_638" align="alignright" width="300"]![The now defunct Edgewater Hospital where both Teresita Basa and Remedios Chua worked as Respiratory Therapists in 1977]()
The now defunct Edgewater Hospital where both Teresita Basa and Remedios Chua worked as Respiratory Therapists in 1977[/caption]
Both are still somewhat mysteries.
On Feburary 20, 1979, Allan Showery was on the verge of becoming a free man. The jury in the murder case was deadlocked and a mistrial was declared. But something happened on the two year anniversary of her death. On February 22, 1979, Showery appeared with his attorney in front of Judge Barbaro and against his attorney’s advice plead guilty to the crime of Teresita’s murder!
Showery was sentenced to 14 years in prison (the minimum term for murder at the time) and four additional concurrent 4 year terms for arson and burglary.
He was sent to Stateville Penitentiary where he was paroled in July 1983 after only a little over four years.
I believe that Showery is still alive and getting ready to reach the age of 70. It seems that after he was released he re-joined a mysterious woman named “Naomi” who attended his court hearings and in the late 1980s moved in with a female relative in Colton, California. After that he came back to live in Chicago for a short stint at 1901 W. Pryor near Blue Island. After that he returned to the area where he lived prior to the murder, New York City.
I have been able to trace Showery back to New York up until 2004 but after that it is somewhat of a mystery although there is reason to believe he is still alive and probably still haunted by the voice that convicted him in 1979.
According to the book, “Teresita, The Voice From the Grave”, Bonus Books, Inc., Chicago, 1992 by long time Chicago Tribune reporters John O’Brien and Edward Baumann, Teresita’s family took her body back to Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental, The Philippines.
According to O’Brien and Baumann, The Basa Mansion still existed on Colon Street and was occupied by Socorro Basa’s sister, Lourdes Calumpang as well as Teresita’s aunt and family.
Teresita was supposed to have been resting across the street at Santa Catalina Cemetery.
The problem I have is that there currently is no Santa Catalina (St. Catherine) Cemetery anywhere in Dumaguete City. There is a Santa Catalina Church (Also called the Dumaguete Cathedral) off of Colon Road which at one point (at least as far back as 1897) had a cemetery. Now it could have well been renamed since 1992 but there doesn’t exist any cemeteries off of Colon Street or near the church currently.
[caption id="attachment_924" align="alignleft" width="300"]![Santa Catalina Church or what is now known as the Dumaguete Cathedral in The Philippines near where Teresita Basa was purportedly buried]()
Santa Catalina Church or what is now known as the Dumaguete Cathedral in The Philippines near where Teresita Basa was purportedly buried[/caption]
There are two cemeteries about a mile northwest of the location and they are called Bogo Public Cemetery and Dumaguete Memorial Park. Neither of those cemeteries seem to be overseen by the Roman Catholic Church of which Teresita was a devout member.
There is also an additional cemetery about 3 miles west and that is called The Gardens Memorial Park which again does not appear to be connected to the Catholic Church. Also about 1.5 miles to the west is the Bagacay Cemetery that seems to be overseen by the World Vision Mission Church.
There is a newer looking park directly across Colon Street and adjacent to St. Catherine’s Church. The park is called Quezon Park and could be built on an area that may have contained a cemetery at one point.
On the website Find-A-Grave there is an obscure reference to a Dumaguete Roman Catholic Cemetery but it does not have a physical location listed and only one interment entered as Lee Porter Hamilton.
Could Teresita have been buried and continue to lie in a small churchyard cemetery or was she at one point buried in a St. Catherine Church Cemetery but then moved to make way for a new city park.
Could it also be misinformation given for publication to deter the curious and disrespectful. Whatever the case may Teresita rest in peace.
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Teresita Basa's apartment building at 2740 N. Pine Grove Ave.[/caption]
Not only did Remedios “Remy”, name Showery but also what articles of jewelry the police would find in his possession and the names and phone numbers of relatives of Teresita who could identify the items.
I won’t go into the details since I published a story last year on the anniversary of Teresita’s Death.
This year I was curious as to what happened to both of them following the crime that made national news in the late 1970s.
[caption id="attachment_638" align="alignright" width="300"]
The now defunct Edgewater Hospital where both Teresita Basa and Remedios Chua worked as Respiratory Therapists in 1977[/caption]
Both are still somewhat mysteries.
On Feburary 20, 1979, Allan Showery was on the verge of becoming a free man. The jury in the murder case was deadlocked and a mistrial was declared. But something happened on the two year anniversary of her death. On February 22, 1979, Showery appeared with his attorney in front of Judge Barbaro and against his attorney’s advice plead guilty to the crime of Teresita’s murder!
Showery was sentenced to 14 years in prison (the minimum term for murder at the time) and four additional concurrent 4 year terms for arson and burglary.
He was sent to Stateville Penitentiary where he was paroled in July 1983 after only a little over four years.
I believe that Showery is still alive and getting ready to reach the age of 70. It seems that after he was released he re-joined a mysterious woman named “Naomi” who attended his court hearings and in the late 1980s moved in with a female relative in Colton, California. After that he came back to live in Chicago for a short stint at 1901 W. Pryor near Blue Island. After that he returned to the area where he lived prior to the murder, New York City.
I have been able to trace Showery back to New York up until 2004 but after that it is somewhat of a mystery although there is reason to believe he is still alive and probably still haunted by the voice that convicted him in 1979.
According to the book, “Teresita, The Voice From the Grave”, Bonus Books, Inc., Chicago, 1992 by long time Chicago Tribune reporters John O’Brien and Edward Baumann, Teresita’s family took her body back to Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental, The Philippines.
According to O’Brien and Baumann, The Basa Mansion still existed on Colon Street and was occupied by Socorro Basa’s sister, Lourdes Calumpang as well as Teresita’s aunt and family.
Teresita was supposed to have been resting across the street at Santa Catalina Cemetery.
The problem I have is that there currently is no Santa Catalina (St. Catherine) Cemetery anywhere in Dumaguete City. There is a Santa Catalina Church (Also called the Dumaguete Cathedral) off of Colon Road which at one point (at least as far back as 1897) had a cemetery. Now it could have well been renamed since 1992 but there doesn’t exist any cemeteries off of Colon Street or near the church currently.
[caption id="attachment_924" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Santa Catalina Church or what is now known as the Dumaguete Cathedral in The Philippines near where Teresita Basa was purportedly buried[/caption]
There are two cemeteries about a mile northwest of the location and they are called Bogo Public Cemetery and Dumaguete Memorial Park. Neither of those cemeteries seem to be overseen by the Roman Catholic Church of which Teresita was a devout member.
There is also an additional cemetery about 3 miles west and that is called The Gardens Memorial Park which again does not appear to be connected to the Catholic Church. Also about 1.5 miles to the west is the Bagacay Cemetery that seems to be overseen by the World Vision Mission Church.
There is a newer looking park directly across Colon Street and adjacent to St. Catherine’s Church. The park is called Quezon Park and could be built on an area that may have contained a cemetery at one point.
On the website Find-A-Grave there is an obscure reference to a Dumaguete Roman Catholic Cemetery but it does not have a physical location listed and only one interment entered as Lee Porter Hamilton.
Could Teresita have been buried and continue to lie in a small churchyard cemetery or was she at one point buried in a St. Catherine Church Cemetery but then moved to make way for a new city park.
Could it also be misinformation given for publication to deter the curious and disrespectful. Whatever the case may Teresita rest in peace.
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